I am a fan of the books so I was anxiously looking forward to it. I loved it! I thought it was one of the best pilots I've seen in a while. Visually stunning, well paced, excellent cast. It felt very close to the books to me. This could quickly become an addictive show for me. Very much looking forward to the next episode.

Kudos to Mads Mikkelsen. I love Anthony Hopkins and his portrayal of Lecter is very good but he never seemed all that creepy to me (maybe because I find him adorable, I don't know). MM gave off a creepy vibe (in a good way) as Hannibal. Great casting choice.

I expected so little I wasn't even planning to check it out, to be honest. Then a couple of TV critics who are usually pretty hard to please were raving about how good it is, so I thought I better at least see for myself. And I'm glad I did.

I didn't even know it was on - it completely slipped from my mind! They advertised it enough here in NY but still I missed it.

I'll have to catch it later. Reviews were pretty darn good in some papers and websites. The NBC network seem to be somewhat happy with the ratings. Although it wasn't great (they used the term "soft"), it didn't do poorly either compared to the show(s) that used to occupy that same timeslot. Will it last the full 13-episode season that NBC has given it? Who knows...

I'm familiar with the series of films, but i was suprised the tv show was very pyschological orientated, to the detriment i feel of any significant action. I was bored for large parts of the pilot, but am intrigued by the apprentice in training. I'll check out the second episode, to see if i can become more enthralled by the mind games.

The NBC network seem to be somewhat happy with the ratings. Although it wasn't great (they used the term "soft"), it didn't do poorly either compared to the show(s) that used to occupy that same timeslot. Will it last the full 13-episode season that NBC has given it? Who knows...

I'm wary to get attached to anything on NBC at the moment, last year Awake premiered better than Hannibal did last night and that was cancelled, so i'm not holding out much hope for Hannibal. They should have premiered it after The Voice to give it a decent chance, but instead they stick it in the notorious Thursday 10pm NBC death slot, the execs at NBC seem more clueless by the day...

I'm wary to get attached to anything on NBC at the moment, last year Awake premiered better than Hannibal did last night and that was cancelled, so i'm not holding out much hope for Hannibal. They should have premiered it after The Voice to give it a decent chance, but instead they stick it in the notorious Thursday 10pm NBC death slot, the execs at NBC seem more clueless by the day...

I agree with your sentiment only I feel that this series should have been put on say FX. I think that its chances of survival would be better than on NBC. NBC is such a mess.

I'm not sure that Mads Mikkelsen was the right choice for Hannibal. His Hitler haircut and strong accent make him too creepy from the start, although not as obviously barking as Will Graham.
Lecter's power as a character comes from his lack of visibility in both the Red Dragon book and "Manhunter" in which he appears only briefly his crimes are only touched upon; once we see him attacking people he becomes a bit vulgar and much less interesting. Granted this wouldn't make for much of a tv series.
I recently saw a website which listed behavioural profilers amongst the top 5 "full of crap" occupations, along with weather forecasters, fund managers and wine experts.

The character has already been run into the ground. The more of him you see, the less interesting he becomes. Hannibal Lecter became an iconic character in SOTL because he was rarely seen and was mysterious. Going into more depth about him is detrimental to the character

The character has already been run into the ground. The more of him you see, the less interesting he becomes. Hannibal Lecter became an iconic character in SOTL because he was rarely seen and was mysterious. Going into more depth about him is detrimental to the character

I recently read a book called Reel Terror which touches on the trend for remakes of horrors to give more backstory to the killer e.g. Michael Myers, Jason etc
It was very interesting, John Carpenter was quoted saying something like "that's why they were scary, because we didn't know who they really were and why they did these things - they just did".